Keep the Fire Burning
by Cosmic Sky
Summary: Sometimes you need a little reminder or pick-me-up when the all your problems feel like they're piling up on you. A father-daughter talk could pass for one of those, especially when you feel history is repeating itself right in front of you. Perhaps this time Taiyang can move things along a little faster. A Xiao Long Family one-shot.


**I own nothing.**

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She really thought she was going to win this time, she was sure of it to the point she could practically taste victory in her mouth. The feeling was beautiful, intoxicating, and welcomed. How long had it been since Yang had felt this way? A year? Ten months? Eight? It didn't matter to her, all that did was making her father test the dirt.

"Think we're at the end?" He playfully jabbed dodging a right hook with ease.

"Oh you're damn right we're at the end!" She shouted back continuing the assault. She had her father on the defensive, she'd already landed three solid blows earlier on and number four would be the knockout blow she needed. He hadn't retaliated, or rather she hadn't given him the chance to retaliate. This was her fighting style, a relentless assault that left her opponents no room for counterattacking and smashed clean through their defenses. "Ready to for it to be over?" The blonde shot rearing back her robotic right hand for an Aura-powered jab that would win her the match.

As a father Taiyang couldn't have been prouder of the expression on his daughter's face. His little dragon was returning to her old self. That was what kept him from exploiting all the holes in her offensive form. That was where the teacher in him couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment. Each of her punches were powerful and fast enough to KO a Beowolf, but she was too reckless and eager to get that KO. Every attack left an opening an experienced fighter could use to turn the match around. If this had been a real battle his daughter would have been defeated long ago. The two spectators had probably already come to that conclusion a while ago.

"Eyes open pops!"

"Big words Firecracker!"

Stomping her feet into the ground she threw her robotic arm forward with all her might fully intent on claiming victory in that single moment. Taiyang would have loved to have let her have it, but that would have been counterproductive to what the original plan was.

She looked so much like him when he was her age, that's what made the moment both sad and joyful. Really everything she'd gone through in the past year was eerily similar to what had broken Team STRQ apart. Maybe that was why he hesitated in counter attacking his daughter. The robotic arm was beginning to break down under the insane amount of energy Yang was funneling into it, hell, he could see the sparks flying and metal plates coming undone. _Oh man, barely a month and I've already blown through half of my Signal check._ The older blond grumbled ducking his daughter's attack.

Yang's reaction time was too slow and her father's fist was too precise in where it hit. The one-armed teenager gasped for breath mere seconds after her father's bare fist slammed into her gut knocking off a chunk of her Aura, and then came a second blow to her left side that destabilized the rest. The Aura shield around her broke apart exactly as the circuitry in her cybernetic arm exploded sending an electrical surge throughout her entire body. The combination of pain and shock knocked her off her feet sending her falling back against the cold ground; as if the pain she was already in wasn't enough she now had a minor headache due to the fall.

"And that, my beloved daughter, is the match." Taiyang proudly proclaimed standing over her.

"Best two out of three dad." The teenage girl huffed.

"Actually Miss Yang we've already done that," Came the voice of one Professor Oobleck. "As it current stands the score is Taiyang three and you zero. You're more than welcome to up change it to best out of seven even though the odds are overwhelmingly not in your favor."

"Regardless it was a spirited battle! One that reminded me of-"

"Okay let's call it a day!" The Y of the defunct Team RWBY yelled before her bearded professor could launch into another story. When an explosion to her right greeted her ears she grunted, "Could someone please get this thing off of me? I'm pretty sure I broke it…again."

Picking up the toolbox Professor Oobleck marched over from the porch and began removing the robotic limb from the winded teenager. Yang was right, she had indeed overworked her replacement arm to the point Oobleck was no doubt going to be spending the rest of the night making repairs. Somewhere inside that made her feel guilty since this would be possibly the fourth time and second arm. She'd already destroyed the first one her father had gotten her. Robotic limbs weren't cheap even when they were cheaply made.

"Look on the bright side, you lasted longer than all the other rounds." Taiyang offered sitting down beside his oldest. "Couple more practice rounds and you may actually make me break a sweat."

"Oh please, I had you right where I wanted you dad."

"Just keep telling yourself that Yang."

"Just watch, next time you'll be the one kissing the dirt." A sense of elation came when at last the green-haired professor detached the artificial arm from her. It still felt…unnatural. Somewhere in the back of her mind she believed that was why she was having such a tough time, because the weight and feel of a robotic arm couldn't compare to her own flesh and blood arm. A warped sense of relief always came when she was able to free herself of the fake arm.

The teenager didn't move after that nor did her parent, the two simply remained on the grass watching the evening sky change shades as it made the transition to night. Being seasoned men Oobleck and Port knew what a moment was when they saw it. From what they gathered another father-daughter talk was about to take place and it was not their place to be there to listen in.

"Peter, would you mind giving me a hand."

"Not at all, as a matter of fact I believe I know of a little fine tuning that can be done to make the arm pack a stronger punch."

"You are not going to add in some sort of oversized axe or bladed instrument." The glasses-wearing professor chided being the first one in with his old friend following behind him.

Yang found it sad how there wasn't a trace of white left in the evening sky, if there had been the colors of her old team would have been there. That was the beauty of sunsets, the private pleasure they all used to take joy in at Beacon. At sunset sometimes three out of four of their team colors were visible in the sky: red, black, and yellow. If they were lucky white was there too making it a complete set. The high rooftops and ledges at Beacon often offered them some of the best sets in the house to watch a sunset.

"Thinking about your teammates?" Her father suddenly responded bringing her out of her memories. "Don't look so surprised, your old man's not as blind as you may think. Believe it or not we used to do the same thing."

"You mean, you Old Qrow, Mom, and…Raven?"

Leaning back a little in the grass Taiyang noted the hesitation in her voice when she mentioned Raven. Not that he could blame her. Some days when it was dark and rainy the sunset was tainted black, and that always reminded him of his first love. "When Raven was in the mood for it Summer would drag us up to the rooftops so we could hang out and unwind for a little bit. Given the kind of team we were back then she had the right idea." He laughed. "Some days you just gotta take a load off and relax, especially when the day in question's been pretty shitty."

"In case you haven't noticed I've had more than just a shitty day." The female grunted turning her head away from her father. "One day of relaxation isn't going to make me forget my team's gone, my partner abandoned me, my school is a pile of rubble, and my little sister is…is…" Shouting in frustration she raised her left fist then slammed it into the dry grass again and again until she could feel the throbbing pain making her hand go numb. "Oum damn it all! Why!? Why did all of this happen? Why?"

A gentle hand caught her fist before it could make contact again and immediately began healing it via Aura transfusion. Looking up the recovering brawler saw her father gazing down at her with sympathetic eyes. She hated him having to see her like this. The only upside was their uncle wasn't here, she wouldn't have been able to handle it if he saw her in this broken down state. Unknown to her Taiyang very well known all these thoughts were running through her head. "I can't answer that Yang, I don't think anyone can." He started softly rubbing his thump over her healing hand. "I wish I could give you answer, but sometimes…things happen, things that are out of your control. Trust me, a lot of times you'll keep yourself up at night asking what the hell happened, you'll go over every trace of it wondering where the hell you went wrong. It sucks ass, there's no question about it. You can go over it however many times you want, it's still not gonna change what happened. You shouldn't let that stop you though."

"You're making that sound easier than it is." The one-armed girl snorted with a shake of her head. "Do you have any idea how many nightmare I've had since the Fall of Beacon? I go to sleep and I can't get that moment out of my head! I wake up and I can still smell fresh blood, my blood!" She'd lost track of how many times she'd awoke with a scream forcing either her father, Ruby, or Uncle Qrow to come to her. It was disgraceful and demeaning to have to have her younger sister comforting her at her age when she was always supposed to be the strong one. To have to be rocked by the sleep as if she were a toddler; no one would have thought Yang Xiao Long would ever be in such a situation. "I hate it, I hate this feeling dad! I just want it to go away."

Taiyang waited for his daughter's breathing to settle down signaling her returning calm. His words would have been wasted if she was too wound up to listen. Once he was sure she had he lay beside her, never once letting go of her hand. "You're the only one who can do that, but that doesn't mean you can't have help doing so. I know it hurts now, up until a few days ago all you did was stare out the window and mop around the house. Given what you went through I won't deny you were entitled to some of that, but you realized you couldn't keep doing that forever." Hearing those words Yang turned to face him and their eyes locked. Realization flashed through her violet orbs while a sad smile materialized on his face. "Mopping around doesn't really solve anything, it doesn't take care of a crying baby, or present a good image to a couple of girls who've just lost their mother. I at least realized that after Qrow reminded me I still had two daughters that needed a parent."

An that moment Yang felt selfish and guilty, here she was ranting when her father had endured similar if not greater pain than she had. At the very least no one she deeply cared about was dead…hopefully. She hadn't even tried contacting Ruby to make sure she was alright. Weiss was a lost cause given she'd apparently become a prisoner in her own home and Blake was…again, all she could do was hope. "I'm sorry dad."

"Don't be, like I said I've been there before."

"How did you crawl out it?"

His grip on her hand tightened a little more as conflicting emotions wrestled within Taiyang. How did he tell her he hadn't _completely_ crawled out of that suffocating despair? How close he was to falling victim to it once more? The answer lay in his past years as both a teacher and a parent. Putting a confident smile he said, "You take the help you get offered, you take a deep breath when you have to, and you keep moving forward." Motioning to the sunset he continued. "Just look at that, the sun's gone down but it'll be there tomorrow, and the day after. No matter how crappy the day's been, rather it's rain or thunder the sun still rises, even if we can't see it."

"The sun's already gone down."

"And it'll be back in the sky tomorrow. You wake up tomorrow your arm's still gonna be gone, but you're still gonna be alive." He countered. "Take it from a veteran Huntsman, as long as you're still breathing you've still got a chance."

She looked to the sky and saw the red and orange had begun overtaking the violet and purple. The color spray reminded her fire, when she thought of fire she thought of Beacon. "He's still out there…the man who did this to me."

"And what are you going to do the next time you see him? Based on what I've heard this guy is a high upper operative so…odds are Ruby's going to run into him at some point, or you teammate Blake, possibly including you other teammate since she's the Schnee heiress." It was a little blow, one Qrow no doubt would have called him out on. Oobleck and Port might have had something to say if they were here as well. None of it changed the fact Yang needed to hear what he had to say. Tai hated it, _hated it_ , but Qrow had a point. He couldn't keep them here forever because it wouldn't help anyone. "Are you up for letting them fend for themselves? Are you okay with letting that go?" he pointed to the short stump where her right arm used to be.

This time it was Yang's turn to be silent. Her first instinct was to deny everything her father had just said, explode in his face about how crude it was for him to use her teammates in such a manner. The problem was she _knew_ he had a point. Looking to her pathetic stump of an arm she wondered how her next encounter with the sword-wielding Faunus would go. Would she come out on top? Would she lose another limb or worse her life? There was only one way to find out, yet that path had deadlocked her legs and chained her to this quiet little house. If she ventured into the outside world again could she still be the same Yang everyone had come to know? Could she still fight as capable as she had before? "I'm scared dad." Were the words that spilled out of her mouth when the weight of her fears became too much.

To hear his daughter speak in a voice so quiet he had to strain to hear it broke Taiyang's heart. His daughter truly was embarking on the same journey he had when Raven left as well as when Summer died. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders he brought her closer. "I know Yang, you're scared if you go out there you'll break down. In order to avoid that you want to stay here where it's nice and safe, but are you sure that's the best decision? What kind of dragon spends the whole of its life cooped up in its lair?"

He'd always called her his little dragon, hell, her father's side of the family had supposedly been named after a dragon. Her eyes drifted back to the stump only this time it wasn't just fear and doubt that consumed them. Even if a dragon lost its arm it still had its scales which could shrug off steel, a body impervious to all weaponry, the speed of lightning, a tail that could sweep down forests, fangs that could shred solid stone, and fire hot enough to scorch the landscape. Her left hand stopped short of the stump, it formed a fist instead that she held up to the sky.

"Ruby always was the left-handed one, who says I can't become as good as her?"

"That's my girl." The father said proudly.

Springing back onto her feet she took a fighting stance, "Come on pops, we're going to go for best out of seven!"

"Sure you wanna make that bet?" No sooner had the words left his mouth did he see his daughter throw a blindingly fast left hook he nimbly sidestepped. "You sure you don't want to wait for Oobleck to come back with the prosthetic?"

"Nah, besides, I still have one good arm and two working feet." The younger blonde grinned.

Returning her grin the Signal teacher took a similar stance to his daughter. Neither of them had their weapons or used their Aura to augment their blows. In a sense they were both naked. Above them the last vintages of the dad had disappeared leaving a black blanket over the sky littered with stars. Like with their weapons neither cared because as far as they were concerned they had all the light they needed.

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 **It doesn't need to be said 2016 has been a…tough year for a variety of reasons. That being said I sure as hell don't expect 2017 to be smooth sailing, but hey, you can't stop time from passing. All you can do is toughen up and brave whatever life throws at you. Every time you're knocked down it's up to you to get back up. I'd like to believe by the time Volume Four wraps up Yang will be back to the same pun-making brawler we all know and love. Based on the last episodes Weiss seems to be realizing standing around doing nothing doesn't change one's situation so here's hoping. Happy New Year everyone and make the best of it!**


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